I had my fun activity for Camp Fulbright this afternoon...we did blind portraits, one of my favorite activities from my days at Camp Huston. Ha! Unlike both my lessons, which only demonstrated to everyone present how woefully inexperienced I am at teaching, it actually went WELL. (If I've failed to report at length how both of my lessons went, it's because I'm too busy repressing their memories. Everyone tells me that all it takes to improve as a teacher is time and experience and all I can say is....they'd better be right, or these next 13 months are gonna be interesting.) OK, though, portraiture and Korean girls are an interesting mix. Do you know how blind portraits work? The kids sit in two rows facing each other. For the first 30 seconds the people in one row are supposed to stare at the person across from them and do a portrait without looking down at their paper. Then the two switch. After each set, everyone rotates and the whole thing starts again. At the end, everyone has about 15 portraits of themselves, completely ridiculous and exaggerated. Mine always come out with thick framed glasses and a LOT of frizz. Anyway, I guess it's some sort of cultural thing, but when they're not flashing the peace sign most Korean girls tend to cover their faces when their pictures are being taken. (Syeong-Ko, one of our RAs, got all excited when we asked to see the pictures of his girlfriend on his cell phone. "So pretty!" he kept saying as he handed over exactly eight photos of what might very well be a very pretty Korean girl completely covering her face with her hands. "Oh yes..very pretty!" we all told him.) I would say about half of the girls in my group ended up with 10 drawings of their hands and hair.

Typical picture of a Korean girl:
















I had dinner tonight with one of the Fulbright Campers, a middle schooler, and another ETA, John. At one point in the meal the girl put down her chopsticks, reached across the table and laid her hand over John's. Looking deep into his eyes she said, "You are very, very handsome. And smart. So handsome and so smart." Then, "Will you buy me ice cream?" John: "Umm, I don't have any money right now." "That's okay," she said, and I believe she squeezed his hand. "Go get money. I will wait for you. I promise, I will wait for you." I swear she sounded exactly like a nurse in some WWII drama, sending her beau off to war, pledging to wait and be faithful.